Huntard Rant

The Blog Azeroth Share topic had me thinking about my favorite toons and while thinking about them I decided I should go play them since it's usually fun to run around on them.

Strangely my favorite toons are low level tanks. 20-50ish range although there is a hunter in the 40's range as well. But while I was running dungeons I've noticed a disturbing pattern. Hunters are a pain in the ass.

My Paladin Blood Elf Hortis.
Finally wearing a pair of pants instead of a bikini

My first dungeon on my lowbie paladin and the hunter is pulling before the healer even zones in and I haven't even managed to grab a quest yet. Yech. I figured it was just impatient dps and my usual solution to that is to chain-pull like a mad woman. It usually works well and the next dungeon I run I can go slower. Today I had Zul'Farak and at the first intersection I took a right. Skipped the pull that everyone skips and started pulling the trash before the first boss. Unfortunately when I chain-pull I can't keep as good on an eye on the group to watch for stragglers and extra pulls or other weird stuff. So while I was making a bee-line to the right the hunter was heading left and pulling stuff. And the healer went with him. My group was fine but the healer and hunter both wiped. I felt bad about that but the healer rezed and joined up with us while the hunter seemed to have trouble making his way to us. Apparently stuff kept killing him. I think part of the problem was his pull-happy trigger finger. Maybe he was a newbie and I should have given him some more care...

Well not all dungeons are a bed of roses so I ran another random dungeon. And I got a hunter again. Sure fine, whatever. This one wasn't pull happy at least but their pet had growl on and despite requests to turn it off it still kept taunting everything. I do have one question though, do hunter pet's have a smaller cooldown on their taunt? I swear the stupid things would taunt twice to my once. I'd give up after awhile and just use my threat to pull it off. It's amazing how much threat I can generate.

Intended to be a temporary toon to check out the server
Brewmaster Draenei Monk is a blast! 

Maybe it's just an off-night for the horde? Time to dig out my little Draenei monk. And I get a hunter. Again. Eff it. And this hunter is both pull-happy and with a growling pet. Begins to bang head on wall. Why? Why? Why? Is it really that hard? Are the lower levels just abnormally full of terrible hunters today?

Strangely enough it's made me think about some of the groups I've run as a tank on Tyledres. She's been running into hunter troubles too. Namely growl-happy pets. I get that people are out questing and I'll kindly remind you that your pet has a taunt on. But I'll only be nice about it if you then do something about it. Hell, I've attempted to tank the first trash pulls without a presence and without righteous fury on a paladin. I understand that you forgot. But you've been reminded. Do something about it. I hate running a whole dungeon fighting with a stupid hunter pet for aggro.

And Stampede! I hate that ability. I think of it as the new Army of the Dead because when a hunter summons their entire stable of pets it does look cool and does some damage but all of them taunt. An unglyphed army in a dungeon is a giant no-no and if other tanks won't tolerate it why should I tolerate your stable of pets charging out and taunting off me?

I don't think all hunters are bad. Really, I don't. Some are even really awesome. It's just seems that I can't run into a good one today and they've managed to hit all of my nerves.

Survival Transmog

It's time to begin the new year right with a new transmog contest and JD from Amature Azerothian has just the thing with his Amazing Transmog Survivor Challenge. Since we're allowed to post our entries except for the very last challenge if your still in the competition I present to you my entry.

Har'oka Shaman!

I'm really happy with him. He looks like one troll who'd kick Nass and take Manes. Oh, wait, that's Ebon Blade not Har'oka. I really wanted to make a troll since I felt it'd be more likely for a Har'oka disciple to be a troll since she is a Loa spirit, god, whatever. I decided to make a set in cloth, leather, mail, and plate and choose the one I liked best. I really wanted to remember the theme this time while choosing which outfit to submit. This is the one I thought worked best. Although... it looks cool but I don't think it'd be easy to track down.

He's wearing:
Windfury Harness, Ghost Iron Staff, Vicious Gladiator's Ringmail Leggings, Lifecycle Waistguard, Banded Chain Gloves, and Malevolent Gladiator's Mail Spaulders

I also decided to show my rejected looks. They still look pretty neat I just didn't feel they fit the theme quite as well as the shaman set did.

Har'oka Warlock!
My original thought was that Har'oka's disciples had turned on her and so they should have a bit of an evil vibe. Plus I really love those robes. They have this glow to them that reminded me of Har'oka but they just aren't quite the right color. And you really can't get around him being evil. And a warlock. Warlock's just don't seem like the type to worship anything but power.

He's wearing:
Robes of the Umbral Brute, Inscribed Tiger Staff, Tooth-marked Girdle, Gloves of Creation, Bad Mojo Mask, and Dreadful Gladiator's Felweave Amice

Druid First Attempt
I made two attempts at a leather outfit because I really didn't like this one as well as the other outfits I put together. It didn't come together quite as well as I'd hoped but I like how well the colors of the shoulders and pants works together. Ah well.

He's wearing:
White Leather Jerkin, Inscribed Tiger Staff, Leggings of the Awakening, Gatekeeper Threads, Belt of Pale Thorns, Ghostwalker Gloves, Big Voodoo Mask, Branches of the Cycle

Druid 2
I liked this attempt better and while I like the color of the kilt it doesn't feel like it's primitive Voodoo. But I'm pretty happy with the top half.

He's wearing:
Trickster's Vest, Ghost Iron Staff, Kurenai Kilt, Dreadful Gladiator's Waistband of Cruelty, Greyshadow Gloves, Landlubber Headband, Vengeful Gladiator's Dragonhide Spaulders

Har'oka Warrior
I love how this set looks although by the time I was looking for weapons I realized this set wouldn't be what I was submitting so I just threw on a random mace. I was surprised to realize that none of these pieces are part of the same set since they came together so well. It's a nice warrior look but it doesn't say "Worshipper of a Cat God."

He's wearing :
Parcel Bearer's Breastplate, Gao's Keg Tapper, Voice of Reason, Relentless Gladiator's Plate Legguards, Redsteel Boots, Patroller's Girdle of Endless Spring, Gauntlets of Battle Command, Helm of Serendipity, Cataclymisc Gladiator's Plate Shoulderguards

Fluxfire Feline!

Originally created by the engineers in the bowels of Gnomergon, the Fluxfire Feline is a marvel of modern engineering.

The Fluxfire Feline is a catchable mechanicle pet found in the gnome starting area.

Big hugs for Navimie and Youyankityoutankit.

Who's that warcraft pet?

This pet is found in Gnomergon

Razorgore Test Video and More Pets

Navi suggested using FRAPS to make a video about Razorgore so I decided to give it a try. And I was pretty happy there was a free version. Although I didn't realize that it's only record 30 seconds at first. I had already taken Tyledres though so I thought I'd use Aritâ to make the video. Unfortunately all I have is buffing up before the pull. Oops. Since the boss was already dead I finished up Black Wing Lair and the last pet I needed from there dropped.

Since Aritâ's at 90 now I thought I'd take her though Naxx and AQ as well. She didn't get any pets from Naxx but she did get the slime pet. Just three pets left to go!

I still really want to try with the video so I took my 85 Paladin Hortis to BWL. My first attempt I forgot to record but since I also hit the wrong bubble, dropped aggro, and Razorgore got creamed I had another try. After removing the bubble from my action bar I gave it another try. The video starts well but then things went downhill. I couldn't seem to get a good spot to aoe the trash on me and I kept locking myself out of Razorgore. I also ended up damaging Razorgore as well. Just a lot of little stuff that really added up to destroy that attempt. But I thought seeing what I meant about having to break the mind controls would help a bit. But the last part is really choppy. I'm going to have to see if I can find a timer that I can set at 30 seconds so I can focus on the fight and not on making sure I'm recording.

Posting this is more a test for me to see if I can figure out how to put together a movie and how to post it. There is no sound though. Hopefully I'll be able to figure it out and try a video again next week. Although, holy cow did that take forever to load. Hope it doesn't take too long to load up for watching.

I've been Navi-spammed!

I've been Navi-spammed!

New Year's day I was spending time on WoW playing with mogit and I decided to see if I could catch Navi from the Daily Frostwolf on. I really admire her for tracking down all these bloggers, chatting with them, and getting screenshots. It definitely looked like a lot of fun and the few times I've met her in JD's LBR's she's been really cool. So I really wanted to meet her.

And I was really surprised to see her online! After working up some nerve I finally managed to say "hi." I was pretty excited that Navi immediately came out to Silvermoon City and told me how excited she was to have me come visit. She also told me that she'd been trying to track me down. And she'd named a pet after me! A water elemental! 

On my server she showed me some really fabulous pets such as tyrael's hilt, murkablo, and the dragon kite. She said the kite was supposed to change colors but it wasn't working. She was bummed that the color change had gone away but she should be happy to learn that the patch 5.2 notes says:

Pets whose color schemes change each time they are summoned have returned. Older pets with this behavior now have it back, as well as some newcomers.

It was definitely fun to get to meet Navi! Although spaz that I am I forgot to take screenshots.

Holiday WoW Play Update

Been awhile since I've updated about what I've been up to in WoW and I've been up to a bunch of different things. Warning! Long post ahead!

I've been in my new guild for a few weeks now and I've noticed some things that I'm really happy about. First there's a ton of people in guild. Leveling, pvping, grouping, etc. and there seems to be guild chatter going on. I've been a bit shy about joining in but it's nice to be in such a vocal and active group. The other thing I've noticed is the officers are setting up guild runs.

The guild would like to start raiding the MoP raids but we don't have enough geared people with interest to accomplish those goals yet but last week we did put in some attempts on the dogs. The tanks got some good practice with the swaps but it mostly came down to just not being geared enough. So the run was called after a few attempts and we went to get some more guild achievements runs done.

The first place we hit was Firelands and it gave us a lot of trouble. Most of the group hadn't been there before and the mechanics in Firelands are brutal. You can't brute force your way though most of the fights. We finished about half of the raid before calling it a night.

We came back the next day and finished up pretty quickly with renewed energy.

Since that didn't take much time we went to Dragon Soul. Dragon Soul was laughably easy. The only trouble we had was spine because we had people zerging all the tentacles at first and the agalomations before we managed to get them to stop. The raid leader was also a bit confused about how the fight was supposed to work but we managed to muddle our way though. The last fight went well and the guild got the achievement and many of the group got the new title Destroyer's End.

Since the night was still early and I had achievements on my brain I thought I'd head back to Lost City and see if I could snag the Kill it with Fire, the last achievement I needed for Cata Glory of the Hero. I suppose if I had thought about it I wouldn't have tried it by myself but I got there and was heading for the boss when I realized this might not be doable. But since I was there I figured I'd give it a look. My first attempt I thought it might be possible but I did wipe. Second try I paid more attention to my health and snagged the achievement.

Pink Volcanic Stone Drake!

It was still pretty early yet so I actually did some dailies. And I managed to reach exalted with my third MoP Rep. Golden Lotus!

Guess I should get to work on those other reps. like Cloud Dragons.  I like how having the secondary professions gives you extra dailies. Tyledres is becoming quite the fisherwoman. Her skills only at 300 but she's working on it.

I've been spending quite a bit of my WoW time playing Aritâ, my new 90 druid. She's been flying around the world searching for artifacts and pets when she's not inflicting her heals on random dungeons groups.

I really enjoy playing resto again and admiring Arita's mog when she's not bouncing around in tree form. I should dig her Dartol's Rod of Transformation out of the bank so I can run some dungeons as a healing furbolg. She even got a new achievement for her healing! Ok, that was more the group was awesome than that I was healing but it's still pretty cool.

With the pet battling she's finally managed to catch one of each type of pet and...

 ... And she's managed to catch 50 rares! And not a one of them is over level 16. Yet.

Last year ended with JD posting about a new transmog contest so I took Aritâ out to Zul Drak to visit Har'oka and begin planning an outfit to enter. I plan to post about my entry later on along with a few of the options I considered and discarded.

The new year started pretty well and I actually took Tyledres down to the Tillers again where she finally managed to make a friend. Jogu the Drunk. He's such a great friend he gave me booze.

I also made a new WoW friend. I was on earlier than usual for me so I thought I'd see if this person was on. And Holy Smokes they were! Spaz that I am I forgot to take pictures. Ah well. Was still pretty cool. Although I will keep secret on who this person is for a bit longer.

At about Midnight the guild got together a group to run LFR. Tyledres won her 4th belt. Wonder if Blizzard thinks my DK's pants are falling down. She also won a 1-handed weapon. If I can get another I can use my amazing axe for blood and go back to DW frost. When I first got the axe I was a little reluctant to relearn frost but it was more like remembering frost from Cata.

Before the guild runs I'd been at the Black Market Auction house trying to snag an invitation. The prices have finally gone down to a point where I feel like I can buy one. Although I did recently buy a crimson whelpling for twice what I bought that invitation for. Arita wouldn't leave Wetlands without one. Having moved over 5000 wool, linen, and silk cloth along with a slew of greens I figured she came pretty close to making the 9000 gold she spent on that dragon.

But 4500 gold later and I was the proud owner of a Invitation to the Brawler's Guild

Which meant I had to stay up even later so I could get this. 

Looks like I'll be keeping pretty busy in the new year. Guild runs, Brawler's Guild, Pet Battles, Contests, and, of course, all the wonderful peoplel that I've gotten to meet.